The Spaghetti Tree

Before the Trattoria Revolution, we in Britain knew so little aboutforeign cooking that in 1957, most of us believed the BBC's Panorama AprilFool hoax that spaghetti grew on trees.
The Spaghetti Tree is the colourful and untold storyof Britain's growing love affair with Italian food, originally sparked in 1959by Mario Cassandro and Franco Lagattolla at La Trattoria Terrazza in Soho. Withits authentic dishes, informal style, and its cool, modern interior, LaTerrazza became the most famous and influential restaurant in London, launchinga revolution in our social culture.
 
Just as Britain's post-war generation found their own newfreedoms, so Mario and Franco and their successors gave us something else ourparents had never enjoyed - our own new food and restaurants.  The 'Trat Scene' became a part of Sixtiesfolklore and throughout the decade, Mario and Franco's empire spread,  while their formula, menu, style and even theirdesign, was endlessly copied in trattorie across the country, transforming ourrestaurant landscape.

Mario and Franco changed the way we ate out, and today, inhomes and restaurants around the country, their legacy lives on.

TheSpaghetti Tree  shows for the first timethe full extent of the contribution the Italians and their food have made tothe way we live and eat in Britain, and offers a fascinating and important newcontribution to the social and food history of 1960s Britain.

Alasdair was a London restaurateur in the 1970s and his later career was in international public relations agencies.
Alasdair and his wife Felicity live in Kensington, West London